A highly cruel juxtaposition.

June 8, 2017 4:17 PM

26 of the most disgusting words in the English language, as told by cute puppies.

See also: Ambivalence, Logomisia, and some data analysis of one of the worst offenders.

Previously. And by way of apology, Eyebleach.me.

posted by mireille (40 comments total)

Curds are delicious, wth
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 4:20 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

There's a method to this madness and I demand that it be appified for my immediate naming needs and wants.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:28 PM on June 8, 2017

Panties? wtw o_0
posted by datawrangler at 4:28 PM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

It is really hard to not read a Freudian subtext into this selection of words.
posted by Pyry at 4:33 PM on June 8, 2017 [16 favorites]

I don't really see where this guy got which words are disgusting besides some of the more famous words like moist? If this guy picked a lot of the list himself. . . then I feel absolute horrible for his poor wife. And if not, it seems pretty sexist (seriously, bosom and teat as the most *disgusting* words?).
posted by barchan at 4:33 PM on June 8, 2017 [20 favorites]

Obviously, onomatopoeia offends the author(s). Don't see the word "regurgitate" though, and that surely would be #27...
posted by datawrangler at 4:34 PM on June 8, 2017

Came for the pustule, left with some curds. 10/10 would doggo again.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:34 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

The list maker should probably avoid having children. And, come to think of it, will probably have no trouble doing that.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:40 PM on June 8, 2017 [13 favorites]

I'd be absolutely fascinated to discover just what words the author deems acceptable for referring to women's breasts. Aside from "boobs" which he clearly doesn't mind.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:45 PM on June 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

I have heard people complain in the past about moist and panties and teat. I'm not familiar with the others.
posted by Megafly at 4:49 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can't say I agree with all of the ones he chose but here are more links on the science, the connection with bodily functions, and other thoughts on the reaction:

Thought Catalog: “Moist” And 28 Other Gross-Sounding English Words That Everyone Hates
NYT: We Know You Hate ‘Moist.’ What Other Words Repel You?
PLOS One: A Moist Crevice for Word Aversion: In Semantics Not Sounds

I've also just realized that I'm going to need to post more often to crowd these tags out of my profile.
posted by mireille at 4:54 PM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

I bet he doesn't like galoshes.
posted by Reverend John at 4:56 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Several nations get really upset about the curds.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:05 PM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's like a list of 90s alternative rock band names.
posted by cazoo at 5:12 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

What a noxious turd to call perfectly poetically beautiful words "disgusting".
A teat is like a pustule how?
Pull your apparently too moist panties out of your butt.
Smegma.
posted by Alter Cocker at 5:14 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yeah none of those words is as disgusting as the baked-in misogyny permeating the whole listicle (a genuinely disgusting word).
posted by wreckingball at 5:14 PM on June 8, 2017 [18 favorites]

I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that there's 26 words but they don't all start with different letters of the alphabet.
posted by aubilenon at 5:27 PM on June 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'll give him fidget spinner for sure. As to the rest, the author is standard issue biophobic. Heh no pun intended!
posted by maniabug at 6:14 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I used to have a co worker who hated the words MOIST and NIPPLES so I tried to use them together as often as possible.
posted by dobbs at 6:15 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

I used to have a co worker who hated the words MOIST and NIPPLES so I tried to use them together as often as possible.

Welp, the only thing I can see as objectionable about those two is post-coital afterglow I wasn't a part of...

(Also, the list was so lame, I think I got 7 or 8 in before closing the tab)
posted by Samizdata at 7:01 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I WANNA #23
(squad!)
I WAH-NAH #23
(squad.)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:35 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

My wife and I hired a lactation consultant who said "suckle" and now I can't can't enjoy looking at boobs ever again.

Judging by the list I honestly wonder how much he was enjoying them before.

I don't want to say too much, but some of these words are the opposite of disgusting to me. The problem is when they're put together like this it is disgusting. Not because of the words but because this is the list of the most disgusting things to someone.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 8:02 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have heard people complain in the past about moist and panties and teat. I'm not familiar with the others.

yes, people are strange.

I always thought the word (i guess used mostly by UKians) "unmolested" was strange.. like, does that imply that "molested" is the default state? creepy.
posted by some loser at 9:19 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Not anymore than unbroken suggests broken is the default state, I wouldn't think.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:54 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

It should be considered cheating to use words associated with body parts and functions. Give me grody words like grout. Nudnik. Bulgar. Gorp. Unctuous. For that matter, lugubrious.
posted by darksasami at 12:17 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

The word "coitus" sends my mom over the edge when someone (usually Sheldon) on The Big Bang Theory says it. No matter how many times I tell her that it's the most clinical and thereby the least objectionable word, she still wants to pop that boy and make him stop.
posted by bryon at 12:19 AM on June 9, 2017

I think moist is a perfectly lovely word.

The word I really dislike?

siblings

(shudder)
posted by chavenet at 4:12 AM on June 9, 2017

In highschool we delighted when we found out that our friend hated words- these included 'cuddle' 'snack' and 'moist'.

Hey there
-what?
would you like a... SNACK?
-argh stop doing that !
posted by freethefeet at 4:35 AM on June 9, 2017

Can confirm that mrsozzy finds "supple" repulsive (and she follows an Instagram that's full of gross medical stuff, so the bar for repulsion is sort of high).
posted by uncleozzy at 4:46 AM on June 9, 2017

like, does that imply that "molested" is the default state? creepy

Why would the existence of unthing imply that thing is the default? Default for what?

That said: yeah, this list of words is unsettling (and I don't even know that you could show me a list of words that was 'settling').
posted by pompomtom at 4:57 AM on June 9, 2017

It is really hard to not read a Freudian subtext into this selection of words.

This, so much this. It's a list reminiscent of those gross Piers Anthony books, minus the puns.

And it looked like the author just doesn't like certain sound combinations that you get with some Latin-derived words, like "mucus" and "coitus," with the hard center consonant leading to the soft "us." Which is a valid aesthetic preference, I suppose, but it is going to preclude a vast swath of technical and medical terminology and make you use Anglo-Saxon- or Germanic-derived words instead wherever possible.

But even with those, you still get back to Freud eventually, even if you insist on getting there through Chaucer's vocabulary.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:11 AM on June 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

If you hate siblings, you're going to detest niblings!
posted by blue_beetle at 7:02 AM on June 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm definitely bothered by the word "niblets," and "custard" is slightly upsetting from a phonetic/aesthetic point of view, but for my money the worst intersection of phonemes and biophobia is "fistula."
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:08 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh now bosom is a perfectly nice word. "Bosoms" is even better. In fact, I'm going to make it my business to try to work "bosoms" into as many sentences as possible today.

The most disgusting word in the English language is "meatus" and that wasn't even on the list so GTFO.
posted by holborne at 7:31 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

The most disgusting word in the English language is "meatus"

Oh god and to make it worse, the first time I heard that word was from a roommate who was gleefully showing me pictures of a guy who had put AAA batteries in a place where AAA batteries normally do not go.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:49 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Re: teat. I took a couple classes on lactation counseling during my training. Heard from multiple women to avoid teat as it made a lot of new mothers feel like farm animals. But in general people seemed pretty comfortable to nipple. Meh, different people have different, deeply personal reactions to words related to reproduction and bodily functions.
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:52 AM on June 9, 2017

List of words relating to women's bodies that is not a list of words about men's pleasure, plus some random stuff like renal. Seriously, renal and nipple? Author is a total lightweight and is not even trying. Probably he axed a bunch of menstruation-related words as too obvious.

Words that gross out people I know:

Socket
Skoliosexual (despite the person being skoliosexual themselves)
Smegma
Spooge
Twat
Gravid
Fecund

Words I would expect:

Hematochezia
Hematuria
Placenta
Smegma
Testes (for real, teats but not testes? Come on.)
Hemorrhoid
Molest
Meatus
Scrotum
Snatch

Basically I'd expect words for actual medical issues that are horrifying to deal with, sexual slang, and words that are highly technical terms for sexual things that are usually spoken of casually.

Also I think complaining about fidget spinners is ableist.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:55 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Seriously, renal and nipple?

Nipple's not on the list. (Teat is, though)
posted by aubilenon at 11:33 AM on June 9, 2017

I have heard people complain in the past about moist and panties and teat.

Some people just don't know when they're well off.
posted by flabdablet at 12:02 PM on June 9, 2017

No floculent? No ejaculate? No theosophy? No cul de sac? No pustule? No phloem? No corpulence? No spatchcock? Fail.
posted by Chrischris at 7:19 PM on June 9, 2017